Hypodermic needles have been combined with a variety of safety devices to help prevent unwanted/accidental needle-stick injuries after a needle has been used in its intended purpose (e.g., post-use.) Once type of hypodermic needle that has been fitted with such safety devices is the Huber-type hypodermic needle (“Huber needle”.) The Huber needle is generally used in combination with a subcutaneously implanted port or septum located within one or more various areas of a patient such as the arm, side or buttocks to provide intravenous connections for repetitive and/or lengthy infusions, extractions, or the like (e.g., lasting between several minutes to a few hours) such as those involved in chemotherapy, dialysis, etc. The port or septum directly connects with one of the patient's blood vessel (e.g., a vein) in a manner that allows the port's hollow interior to be in continuous communication with an interior of the attached blood vessel.
One aspect of the Huber needle is that it presents the injection aperture or opening on the side of the needle proximate to a tip of the needle unlike other hypodermic needles having the aperture located directly at the very injection tip itself. In this manner, the Huber injection aperture will create a self-sealing slit opening in the port when injected into the skin injection site/port. When the Huber needle is withdrawn from the port, the slit opening in the port will generally self-close or self-seal to substantially keep contents within the port's hollow interior from leaking to outside of the port.
If a non-Huber type hypodermic needle (e.g., having an injection aperture on its injection tip) is used to penetrate through an injection site into the port/septum, the non-Huber needle could cause the tip-based injection aperture to punch open a non-slit or open type hole, rather than open a closable slit opening, into the port. When the non-Huber needle is subsequently removed from the port, this punched open hole could allow the contents within the port's hollow interior to leak outside of the port. Additionally, the repeated use of a non-Huber type hypodermic needle upon the port could significantly shorten the port's operational lifespan of that port requiring a greater replacement frequency for the port. Generally, Huber hypodermic needle usage substantially allows a much greater number of connections per the port/septum than could be obtained with the usage of a non-Huber hypodermic needle.
Another characteristic of the Huber needle is that it may be bent into two portions, a distal (or injection) portion and proximal (or connection) portion, wherein the proximal portion is generally oriented to be perpendicular to the distal portion. The proximal portion may be connected to a shield that may be grasped by a health care operator to generally move and contact/inject the proximal portion with the septum or port. The distal needle portion may project downward and away from the underside or bottom of the shield in a perpendicular manner so that when an operator grasps shield (e.g., by a vertical blade projecting upward from the top of the shield), the bottom of the shield may then rested upon the skin of the patient that is covering the septum/port after the distal needle portion contacts (e.g., injected into) the septum or port to provide intravenous connection.
Although current health and safety standards for the Huber type needles generally do not mandate safety features to prevent accidental needle-stick of health care professionals (and others), there are available various anti-needle stick devices applied to Huber type needles that may allow the Huber type needle be withdrawn into a safety device such as a sheath structure (or conversely the sheath structure may be drawn over the Huber type needle) to allow for safe disposal. Generally, these Huber type needle anti-stick safety devices may be seen as bulky: cumbersome to use; and generally fail to make use of the Huber needle's bent shape.
What could be needed is a hypodermic needle that may generally employ a bent configuration that denotes a distal (injection) needle portion and a proximal (connection) needle portion, the proximal needle portion substantially being rotatably attached to a shield to allow the shield to act as an anti-needle stick device. Accordingly, an rotational movement could be to imparted to a needle/shield combination that substantially causes the needle's tip (of the distal needle portion) to move from an operative position (e.g., wherein the distal needle portion extends downward in a perpendicular manner from a bottom of the shield) to being placed next to (e.g., and at least partially covered by) the bottom of the shield (e.g., into a stored or storage position) to provide an anti needle-stick capability for safe disposal. A generally reverse rotational movement could also be employed to move the needle tip initially located in the stored position (e.g., next to the shield bottom) to its operational position for suitable use.